SEVENSEAS Marine Conservation & Travel Issue 10, March 2016 | Page 31

Humans and the rest of biodiversity are critically linked and interdependent. The need for the conservation of the diversity of natural habitats and ecosystems is supported by the United Nations through the development of a complete and well-managed network of protected areas by the year 2020. This goal is achievable with the support of tourism.

The Origin of LT&C

Svalbard is the cradle of LT&C. The following description is the story of an impressive example that highlights how cooperation between tourism and conservation resulted in an increase of well-managed national parks and other protected areas.

Coinciding with Norway’s celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Svalbard Treaty and the country’s sovereignty over the 62,700 km2 far north archipelago in 1995, a major threat to the pristine wilderness appeared. A coal company planned to construct the first long-distance road through the archipelago’s largest green tundra area known as Reindalen. The implementation of that plan would have been the first in a series of infrastructure events that would have had extremely negative consequences for the future of Svalbard. And in particular other Svalbard Treaty members could have insisted on their right to follow that example of Norway and build their own roads and produce related damage to nature. This served as the impetus of the formation of a coalition of conservation NGOs (WWF, Friends of the Earth Norway (NNV) and Birdlife Norway (NOF)) and tourism bodies (the Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT), and later the Dutch “Oceanwide Expeditions” and German “Spitzbergen Tours”). A campaign entitled “No Road trough Svalbard Wilderness!” was started. A four page folder was produced and people were asked to send a postcard to the Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.

(Continued on the following page).

There is no other group of people in the world more interested in protected nature than tourists.

• Most national parks would not exist if tourists

stopped visiting them.

• 50% of all tourists visiting foreign countries

make use of protected areas (IUCN)

• The estimated sum of 30 Billion USD needed

every year for the management of a global

network of protected areas can be

raised by tourism. It is only less than 0,5 % of

global tourism revenue.

• There are many good [LT&C] examples where

tourism is supporting the establishment,

development, and management of protected

areas by means of financing, education, or

political action.

• It is the specific task of LT&C to promote

such good examples and find ways of how

others can learn from them.

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